Category: 2024 Election

Shared with permission.

Dear Friends and Bloggers,

As some of you know and some may not know, this year has been extremely difficult for me to comprehend. I also know that I am not alone with this disruption in our lives that caught so many of us off guard and feeling desolate and depressed. What I offer is my personal opinion of the outcome of the election, its aftermath and my acceptance of the results. It does not come easily to say I took such a downturn during the campaign and the election that I sought medical help that precipitated some changes in the meds and a period of being alone, away from my family and friends to do some deep thinking of life and a way forward. I am still a work in progress but I am making progress. At the clinic, my doctor shared with me that there has been an increase in patients seeking help for mental issues as a result of our election, so know that you are not alone in this and together we may find a way forward to right the devastating wrong that has been inflicted upon us.

Thinking through the events of this past year. I realize that my anger is justified and my belief in the goodness of such a large percentage of our population was totally misplaced. After all the evidence dealing with the deceitful, bigoted, misogynistic and careless behavior and disregard for most of the people in this country came to light and was reported extensively, how the Republican/Maga candidate for our top office still was able to win, not just once but twice is astounding and mysterious. The bottom line – mean spirited and hateful people vote for mean spirited and hateful candidates. This was made abundantly clear on November 5th, this is part of our history now and my hope is that the authors that pen America’s story will report what transpired and that it will not be able to be silenced and whitewashed. Which leads me to consider this important fact; the reasons for America’s involvement in World War II and the allied forces that believed in the concept of a democracy united to end the ruthless takeover of the world by a handful of dangerous demagogues, was scrupulously chronicled in thousands of texts, yet her we are again witnessing a group of power-hungry billionaires intent on damaging our way of life, and it is certain to affect all of us in some way.

America has become a nation of a miniscule group of sadists(those desiring to inflict pain and suffering for their pleasure) and a large population of masochists(those deriving pleasure from oppression and being beaten down and disadvantaged). Consider the people of the Southern United States, people who vote for the Republican ticket time and time again, and rarely benefit from the decisions their representatives in Congress make for them. They remain in poverty, being the citizens who use most of the aid from the government, with the least of educational benefits and poorest economies in the nation.

I think we can all agree that these next 4 years are going to be a challenge, but I actually hope for the worst. I want the next president to surround himself with the dumbest and least experienced people he can find, and it looks like he’s doing an excellent job making that happen. I want them to enact all kinds of laws that will further impoverish and inconvenience the middle and lower class. That may sound harsh but at the end of my life approaching fast I have little to lose as a senior on a fixed income. A reality check and a kick in the pants is what’s needed for our younger generations to know that they’ve been coddled and babied and now’s the time to feel true pain. I want the threatened tariffs to wreck the economy and send even the monied few into a tailspin of desperation. The common people need to live life with gas at $12.00 a gallon, compact cars selling for $80,000.00, eggs at $16.00 and mandatory insurance for home and car that will cost what no one can afford. The abject severity should open the eyes of the blind, deaf and stupid that voted for this most miserable excuse for a human being.

The turnaround won’t happen soon. It will take an uprising of unfathomable determination unseen since WWII to begin the reparations needed for our fragile democracy to survive. I hope for that, seems hope is all we have at this minute. As a meme I saw recently said, if we can eat one billionaire, the others will fall in line. Possibly not, but it would be fun to witness the reaction. Thank you very much for your time. All of you inspire me every day with the work you do on your blogs. ~ Milleson

From The Atheist Revolution:

What is it about the 2024 U.S. presidential election that I’m still having a hard time coming to terms with? It isn’t the outcome itself, as that did not surprise me. I figured that Trump would win. It was clear that the news media missed him and wanted him back in office. The surprise had more to do with how he won. This wasn’t another case of wining the electoral college and losing the popular vote. He won both.

What does it mean to win the popular vote even when it does not determine the outcome of an election? It means that more of the Americans who bothered to vote preferred the winner of the popular vote. It is, in essence, a popularity contest. And Trump won it. This is the part I’m struggling with the most. Knowing everything we now know about him, more American voters wanted Trump back in power. It is tough to look at the country in the same way I once did.

Same, Sir. Same.

“Oh, he’d never do that!”

The thought occurred to me the other day that MAGA by and large, exists solely for the purpose of airing grievances and “owning the libs”. Have you ever heard of a single MAGAT expressing  simple, unbridled joy in their life except when they’re causing pain and suffering to another human being?

And I think that’s what separates us from them. Even in these dark days, we are celebrating and defending our diversity; we still celebrate those amsll moments of joy we find in our lives that have nothing to do with hurting others or making their lives worse.

What absolute joyless, soulless nightmares MAGA lives must be. 45 gave them a voice, but what has it gotten them? Are they happier now? I have a feeling that now that they have what they so fervently hoped for, those lives are going to get a whole lot worse—and they’ll have no one to blame but themselves.

Dumbpty will be in direct violation of the Trade Agreement HE made with Canada and Mexico if he adds the tariffs he is planning.

Mexico and Canada would likely take the US government to the world court, and the US will lose.

From MockPaperScissors:

This thread from Joan Westenberg on Mastodon is worth sharing, and so like the Bad Blogger that I am, I’ve copied and pasted it here because I know you lazy bastids would never click on a link.

It reflects where I think a lot of us are and gives us a path forward to understand why we are still trugging up Mount Doom like Hobbitses on what seems like a futile quest.

“The world is on fire – sometimes literally, sometimes metaphorically. Every day we wake up to headlines that feel like dystopian plot points: climate collapse, political rot, algorithmic overlords harvesting our attention for profit.”

“Beneath it all is a threadbare undercurrent of hopelessness, whispered through every doom-scroll, every “thoughts and prayers,” every vague assurance that “we’ll get through it together.” But the truth is, we’re not getting through it. Not like this.”

“The systems propping up our collective reality are broken, corrupt, and incapable of saving us. So what now? Well, now we stop pretending that the kind of optimism we’ve been sold – cheery, blind faith in progress – is going to cut it.”

“What we need is a radical, rebellious, fuck you optimism. The kind that spits in the face of despair and keeps moving forward anyway, middle finger raised and teeth bared.”

“This isn’t the optimism of motivational posters or shallow self-help mantras. It’s not about good vibes or manifesting your dream house. It’s an optimism born from rage and defiance, from an unrelenting refusal to roll over and accept the inevitable.”

“It’s the kind of optimism that comes with dirty hands and bruised knuckles, that drags itself out of the mud again and again because surrender isn’t an option. This is hope with teeth.”

“It’s not about trusting that things will get better; it’s about refusing to let the bastards win, even if things get worse. It’s a kind of hope that doesn’t wait for permission or assurance.”

“It acts, it disrupts, it fights tooth and nail to carve out a sliver of something better, even if it’s only for a moment.”

“A fuck you optimism doesn’t lie to itself. It sees the train wreck coming and still decides to plant flowers on the tracks. It knows full well that the flowers might get crushed, but plants them anyway, because the act of rebellion is its own reward.”

“This isn’t about optimism as a coping mechanism or a moral virtue. It’s a survival tactic. When despair and nihilism seem like the only logical responses to an unraveling world, this kind of hope keeps us alive, keeps us sharp, keeps us dangerous.”

“It says, “Yes, everything is broken, but I’m going to fight for beauty and joy and justice anyway, because fuck your inevitability.”

“We need this kind of radical hope now more than ever. Not because it will save us – no one is coming to save us – but because the alternative is paralysis. The systems want us to feel small, powerless, apathetic.”

“They want us to give up, to believe there’s no point in fighting back. A fuck you optimism is an act of sabotage against that narrative. It’s not about believing the world can be fixed; it’s about insisting that the world deserves to be fought for anyway. Even when it hurts.”

“Even when it feels futile. Especially then. Because in a collapsing world, defiant hope might be the only thing worth holding on to.”

I think every generation gets a defining challenge; the Greatest Generation had World War Two, and we have the rise of fascism here in America. We must have hope or we have nothing.

And lastly…